Silent Night, Fright Night
by JudeDeluca
Summary: Yes, it's another fright filled Christmas holiday, as the Legionnaires plan a vacation at a secluded country inn all to themselves. As if the old place itself wasn't creepy, those superpowered strangers lurking in the woods really don't help things.
1. In A Snowbound Land

Disclaimer: I do not own Legion. I do own Ebony Dent.

Yes, another scary, holiday story. I decided to start this one earlier than the last one. This is in case I'm not able to post many more stories for the Christmas track list II before Christmas. I actually have a couple of gift stories to work on. But here.

Chapter title comes from one of the Donkey Kong Country games.

* * *

**Chapter One**: _In A Snowbound Land_.

It was one of the biggest buildings in all of Fair Weather Valley. It was also the oldest. Three floors big and as wide as the eye can see. Built of wood, bricks, glass, and perseverance. Rather gloomy looking on this snowy December day in the year 3009.

"Wow." Was all seventeen year old Garth Ranzz could say. He wore dark blue and white winter gear with lightning bolts.

"Yeah, what he said." Concurred the twenty-something Garth Ranzz. He wore blue and white winter gear, also with lightning bolts.

"It's…" Seventeen-year old Imra Ardeen trailed off, not sure what to say about said building. She wore pink and white winter gear.

"Not too bad. It's rustic." Twenty-something Imra Ranzz offered that sunny outlook. She sported red and white winter gear.

"It's creepy." Little Ayla Ranzz said. She sported powder blue winter gear and carried a sock monkey in her arms.

"It's ugly." Seventeen year old Tinya Wazzo said. She sported black and white winter gear with her hair tied back in a pony tail.

"It's too dark." Twenty-something Ayla Ranzz said. She sported winter gear decked in light blue and white.

"I don't like it." Little Ebony Dent said. She sported black winter gear.

"Cool." Eighteen year old Brin Londo said, in orange and black winter gear, as they all breathed in the dark majesty of the Fair Weather Valley Inn.

The Legionnaires and their parallel universe counterparts would be spending their holiday vacation here. From December 19 to after New Year's, these Legionnaires and a few others would be spending the Christmas season.

"So… we're really spending Christmas here, then?" Ebony asked the older of the two Garths. To distinguish the two, we offer this:

*The younger Garth Ranzz spotted orange hair and electric blue eyes, with a scar shaped like a lightning bolt over his right eye, that occasionally lit up. He sported a goatee under his chin and a cybernetic right arm. The spoils of war. The electricity he generated as Lightning Lad was blue.  
*The older Garth Ranzz spotted scarlet red hair and regular blue eyes, with no scars, although he did sport a tattoo of the Legion "L" and two lightning bolts on his left arm. He didn't have a beard, but certainly was scruffy enough. He actually lost his right arm but had long since had it re-grown. The electricity he generated as Lightning Lad was yellow.

"Yep. 14 glorious days and glorious nights." The older Garth explained. "We get to freeze our butts off out here while the other half of the Legion gets to freeze their butts off back in Metropolis." What he said was true. This holiday season, there was a split decision between which Legionnaires would be able to vacation outside of Metropolis this Christmas. However, they couldn't vacation anywhere offworld, considering the fact that Earth has a wide and very well known habit of attracting the worst kind of trouble. And not all the Legionnaires were allowed to leave Metropolis. There were some who needed to stay behind in Legion HQ in case of any alerts. The two Brainiacs took easy advantage of that. Garth smirked. "Looks charming though, don't you think?"

"No." Ebony replied. She was actually standing behind his leg.

"Hey, what's wrong? Scared?" Garth asked.

"Yes." Ebony quietly replied. Garth found that a bit funny, knowing her personality.

"Is the mighty Miz Dent going yellow?" He joked.

"Yes, I admit it." Ebony quickly replied and turned her gaze away from the inn. Garth felt a twinge of pain when he realized the seven-year old was being serious.

"Well, that makes two of us." Garth said, trying to sympathize with her. "Place kinda makes my skin crawl."

Tinya and the older Ayla were surveying the outside of the place for themselves. The two had their arms folded.

"Looking at this place hardly gives you a feeling of Christmas. Halloween maybe." Ayla said.

"And Tax Day." Tinya added. Ayla looked confused.

"Tax Day? Why Tax Day?" Ayla asked.

"Have you ever tried doing taxes for the Legion?" Tinya replied. She shivered at the horrible memories of that April.

"The inside's very lovely, actually." The younger Imra said. We're going to pause to once again explain the differences between the older and younger Imra.

*The older Imra had short blonde hair and normal sized blue eyes.  
*The younger Imra sported long blonde hair and large, almost alien pink eyes.

"Well, that explains it then." Tinya sighed.

"What?" They asked.

"The outside's so ugly because they spent all the money on the inside." Tinya joked. Then she began to mope. "I just don't know why we had to go here. I mean, we could be spending the holidays at the slopes of Neo Aspen, our lounging at Emerald Coast or the La Razza Canal or even the Southern Islands. Not _this_ dump."

Imra rubbed her eyes.

"We've been over this before, Tinya. We drew straws and Rokk got the longest." Imra finished explaining.

"But there won't even be anyone else here!" Tinya finished. "Cos had the fortune of renting the entire place out to ourselves, so now there won't even be any cute guys to pick through."

Tinya suddenly felt colder than before when a pair of steely wolf eyes began giving her a glare.

"Fair Weather Inn. Founded in 1923. Wow. The fact that it's still standing is nothing short of a miracle." Ayla said, amazed and wondering how this building managed to stay so long. She turned around. "Uh, should we be helping them unload the bags?" Ayla pointed to her boyfriend, Brin Londo, and Tinya's Brin Londo, getting all the stuff out the hover van. And now we pause, once again.

*The younger Brin Londo was WAY more feral than the other, having fur, fangs, pointed ears, claws, and wolf eyes. His hair was long and black with two white stripes.  
*The older Brin Londo had short brown hair, and while he sported claws and fangs, that was it, although he was hairy, but not furry.

The younger Brin was dictating the older Brin as he was trying to get the bags and packages out.

"You're good. You're good. You're-no, no, no, NO!"

"Gah!"

CRASH!

"They can manage." Tinya said. She began laughing with Ayla.

The little Ayla, about eight years old, was trying to build a little snowman when her brother hoisted her up and placed her on his shoulders.

"Doesn't it feel good to be back in farm country, Ayl?" Her brother, the younger Garth asked, smiling that he got to spend the holiday with his once twin, now his little, sister.

"Yeah, a little bit." Ayla smiled back. "How do you think mom and dad are doing with Mekt?"

"I'm sure they're fine." Garth explained. "I just talked to them before we left. They seem to be doing okay."

"They ask if you're wearing clean underwear?" Ayla asked, causing a tomato blush in Garth's cheeks. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You know I could just as easy drop you in a snow drift and no one would ever find you." Garth jokingly threatened.

"You'd have to tear my off your head first!" Ayla clamped down tight on Garth's head, with her hands and teeth.

"Aah! Get it off! Get it off!" Garth started running around with Ayla biting down. He was obviously joking and chose to indulge his sister's sense of humor.

"Nevah!" Ayla said, her words muffled by Garth's hair. The two dropped into a pile of snow under a tree. Laughter floated up from below the tree and Ayla was beaming with happiness, being with her brother. And vice versa. Garth straightened up and picked Ayla back up, know holding her.

"Now this trip would be perfect if we could lose a certain blonde floozy." Ayla said, muttering the last part.

"Good luck with that." The younger Imra replied, kissing Garth on the cheek and receiving some very deadly glares from Ayla.

"Hmm. The only girl I know who takes an insult with smiles." Ayla smiled as she gave that back handed compliment. "Oh wait, scratch that." She turned her head to the older Garth and Imra, also known as Mr. and Mrs. Ranzz. The three watched as the two dopplegangers kissed on the lips.

"That is the future, Ayla. Get used to it." The younger Garth informed her.

"The only future I'm getting used to is THAT one." Ayla pointed to her gorgeous, adult counterpart, who was bending over to help her boyfriend.

"Oh that's a good future." Garth joked.

SMACK. Upside the head.

"Ow!" Garth cried.

"Don't be gross." Imra said.

Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Ranzz finished their nauseating display of love.

"Hey." Imra said.

"Hey. Where are the Magnoheads?" Garth asked, referring to older and younger Rokk Krinns.

"Getting the rooms, making sure everything is set with the innkeeper." Imra explained.

"Hey, um, would you mind helping with something?" Garth asked.

Meanwhile, Ebony had snuck back into the hover van, in the back seat, hoping that no one noticed and she could spend the rest of the vacation hiding in the van so she wouldn't have to go inside.

Tap-tap.

Ebony turned around and saw the older Imra tapping on the glass.

"Mind if I come in?" Imra asked.

"Go right ahead. It's a free coun-I mean, planet." Ebony said. Imra opened the door and popped her head in.

"So, I take it you don't like our accommodations?" Imra asked.

"No, I came back in here to look for my sketch book." Ebony lied. Imra rolled her eyes.

"Oh, then I guess Garth lied when he said you told him you were scared." Imra said.

"I guess so." Ebony flatly stated.

"Ebony..." Imra had a habit of referring to Ebony by her first name, unlike Garth, who had a habit of relying more on nicknames like "Kid", while she referred to him as "Monkey Boy".

"Okay, yes, I'm scared. I'm seven. Don't people expect me to be afraid of big, dark places like this?" Ebony asked.

"Well yes, sometimes, but when they're as smart as you that's when people tend to ask questions." Imra countered.

"Yes, I am very smart, aren't I?" Ebony sarcastically talked of her inflated ego.

"Oh yes, the smartest." Imra joked. Ebony laughed a little. "So, what's wrong?" Imra asked again.

"Well, it's just that, um..." Ebony trailed off.

"You know you can talk to me about anything, remember?" Imra reminded her.

"I know." Ebony muttered, but she did not want to think of Imra as her mother. She had a mother. A beautiful, caring mother. A dead mother. "It's just, this place kinda reminds me of the hotel from that Stephen King movie."

"Stephen King movie?"

"You know, the one with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, _The Shining_? They've got the psychic kid who meets the two girls in the hallway, and the elevators filled with blood?"

"Oh! Who let you watch that?" Imra asked, shocked that someone would let a little girl watch such a movie.

"I watched it on the Late Theatre one night." Ebony said.

"Be that as it may, you are far too young to have seen something like that." Imra said. Ebony hung her head down. "But still, you don't have anything to worry about. That was a movie." Imra lifted Ebony to see her gaze, and smile. Imra's eyes looked warm. "You're with friends. And despite how this place looks we'll have a wonderful time. I promise."

Ebony mulled this over.

"Okay. But only if you promise." Ebony said.

"I swear."

"So, how's everything?" Garth stuck his head in. "You okay, kid?"

"Oh I see, you get your wife to do the dirty work." Ebony sardonically implied. "Real mature, Grunge Butt."

"Well, Sunshine Lass, when you say it like that it makes me have second thoughts about that gift." Garth smirked.

"What gi-"

SMACK.

Snowball on top of her head.

"Yeah, I guess I walked into that one."

...

Their eyes surveyed the Legionnaires going in. One noticed that the two Imras suddenly looked back, as if they felt something wrong.

"Don't worry. I've got it covered."

The two then turned back, exchanging glances and shrugging it off as nothing.

"They won't suspect a thing."

"I just wish there were more."

"What are you, suicidal?"

A pair of gloved hands dug into the bark of the fir tree, and a puddle of pus began to seep out.

"Hey, watch it!"

The tree began to die as oozing pus began to leak out and the bark rotted away and died.

"Save it for the Legionnaires."


	2. Decking the Floor

Disclaimer: I do not own Legion. I do own Ebony Dent.

Yes, another scary, holiday story. I decided to start this one earlier than the last one. This is in case I'm not able to post many more stories for the Christmas track list II before Christmas. I actually have a couple of gift stories to work on. But here.

Chapter title comes from one of the Donkey Kong Country games.

* * *

**Chapter Two**: Decking The Floor

The inside of the Fair Weather Inn was well furnished, spic and span, if not old. Wooden furniture and plaid fabric on the pillows and covers. They actually still used working televisions in the rooms and cordless telephones of all things. There was a sauna, a gym, a pool, a kitchen, three dining rooms, a movie room, an arcade, a library, four sitting rooms, a walk-in freezer, bathrooms in all the guest rooms, a lounge, a living room, and a front desk.

"Well, the inside isn't so bad..." Ebony said, still by Garth's side, carrying his bags and hers.

"I figured it'd be right up your alley." He said. "I mean, I know how much you love old things."

"They're not old to me." Ebony said. "I mean, not that old." She corrected herself.

"Eh, why quibble with semantics?" Garth asked. "So, I gotta go help the other Garth pick out a tree for the lounge in a little bit."

"We're getting a tree?" Ebony asked.

"Yep. We even brought decorations. Or we could make them ourselves." Garth explained. "Where else are we gonna stick the presents?"

"I've never really had the chance to decorate a tree before. Marcie never had a very partial touch when it came to holidays."

"Poor baby. Before I leave, need help picking out a room?" Garth offered.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't wanna walk around this place by myself." She said.

"Not to worry, Monkey Boy's here to keep you safe." Garth told her, sticking out his chest.

"Oh I feel SO safe." Ebony swooned. "Whatevah would ah do without you, good suh, for ah am just a dainty Southern belle, and with the Spring Cotillion on it's way?" She spoke in a mock Southern accent.

"Well mahm, ah reckon ah don't kindly right know ah tell you." He replied in a bad Southern/Western drawl, trying to sound like a cowboy and pretending to tip an imaginary cowboy hat. The two exchanged a fit of giggles.

"Ayla, come on! I'm gonna go look for a room." Ebony called.

"Coming!" Ayla said, grabbing her bags and catching up to the two as they walked up the stairs. As she walked beside them, she watched her brother and his girlfriend kissing under mistletoe. The cheesy display of romance made her stomach turn. As it did the man watching from the window at the end of the hall.

...

"And here we are, ladies."

Garth opened the door for the two young girls to step in. The room had two beds on both sides of the room, and a bare wooden floor. The quilts were faded, but sewn by hand. There were four pillows on each bed. There was a dresser drawer, a closet, a desk, two night tables, a TV, and a bathroom.

"Cool." Ebony said.

"Very lumberjack chic." Ayla said.

"I'll leave you two ladies to get settled in." Garth said. "Were you able to remember how to get back to the main lobby from here?"

"Yes." Ebony replied.

"Good." He kneeled down to speak to them. "Now listen, we don't want either one of you wandering around here by yourselves, at least until we show you where everything is." Garth explained. "Promise you won't make a mess, you won't leave any uneaten food or dirty clothes lying around, and promise you won't break anything."

"We promise."

"Okay then." He said, standing up. "M'am." He said, to Ebony.

"Suh." She replied, and he left.

"You two are weird, you know that?" Ayla asked.

"Such is the curse of a devastatingly beautiful woman." Ebony joked.

"Now, I need your help." Ayla quickly said, now that they were alone. "I need you to keep the ice queen busy for most of this trip so Garth can spend it with me." Ayla had a scheming look twinkling in her eyes.

"Ayla what the heck is your problem with Imra?" Ebony asked.

"I can't stand it! I can't stand her being with him!" Ayla shouted. "I know he doesn't really like being with her."

"Yeah, by the way the two kiss and hold one another by the fire you can really pick up on the animosity." Ebony rolled her eyes.

"It's true!" Ayla claimed. "She's a mind reader. And that means he has to be nice to her or she would know."

"Wouldn't she also know if he was faking it if she was reading his mind?" Ebony used that needle to poke a hole in Ayla's logic bubble.

"Yeah, but he can fake those thoughts too." Ayla pointed out. "Now, I just need to figure out what I can do. Hmm, I can probably fake a heart attack at dinner but I'm guessing they could tell if I'm faking..."

Ayla began wracking her mind with possibilities. Ebony climbed on the bed and looked out the window to the blowing snow and freezing cold. The dark. This place. She felt a familiar coldness that she didn't want to remember. Then she looked at Ayla, plotting the downfall of Imra Ardeen, and somehow, she felt warm again.

"Maybe if I called and said that Imra's great great uncle died and she had to go to Titan for the reading of the will. She could be gone for months!" Ayla happily imagined. Ebony rolled her eyes.

"You say I'm weird?"

"Yeah, well, I make it work."

"Word."

...

"Geez, this place is like a museum." Tinya moaned, slumping down in an armchair in the lounge, by the fireplace.

"I know, isn't it great?" Young Rokk Krinn asked, ecstatic.

And now, we pause again for the benefit of you readers to establish the difference between the young and old Rokk Krinn.

*The younger one had short black hair and purple eyes.  
*The older one had even shorter black hair and blue eyes. (Yes that's it)

"No, you see, I didn't mean that in a good way." Tinya replied, but he wasn't listening.

"Forget about him, he's in his own personal heaven." Imra sighed.

"Would you look at this place? Handmade wooden furniture. Hand stitched upholstery. Actual flat screen televisions. And look at this rooster lighting fixture!" He was actually fawning over a hand carved rooster light on a table in the front lobby. "Such perfect, hand carved detail!"

"Oh, yes. Will the magic never end." The older Ayla asked, mechanically.

"This whole place actually feels like a monument of some

"So what exactly is the history behind this place?" Young Brin Londo asked.

"Well, there isn't that much Fair Weather Valley is famous for, although it was the home of an obscure Wonder Woman villain." The older Rokk explained as the younger one started looking around the place. "An ice-themed villain called the Blue Snowman."

"The Blue Snowman? Really?" Brin asked.

"Yeah, she used some type of precipitation-device called-"

"Whoa. Hold it. You said 'she'?" Brin asked.

"Yes. The Snowman was actually a woman, a schoolteacher named Byrna Brilyant."

He received nothing but weirded out stares from everyone in the room.

"Can you say 'gender issues'?" Tinya asked.

"Well, it's not that bad." The older Imra said, a box of ornaments in her hands for when the two Garths would return with the tree. "There's a carnival in town. That should keep the girls busy."

"But there's nothing to do around _here_!" Tinya stomped her foot.

"Have you seen the pool?" Brin asked his irrate girlfriend.

"Pool?" Tinya asked.

...

"Oh my God what is with this place?" The older Brin Londo said, looking into the arcade. The room was filled with big, beeping, lighted machines with monitors and controls. All ancient with bad graphics and annoying music. Some had fake guns for controllers. Some, the racing games, had seats, wheels, and fake peddles. There were also pinball machines.

"Pac Man? Super Mario Brothers? Wave Race? Donkey Kong?" He began listing the names. "What the heck is this stuff?"

"Marvel Vs. Capcom! CarnEvil! Hydro Thunder! Guitar Hero! House of the Dead! Area 51!" Little Ebony was breathless. All her favorites were here. And, they were working. "It's like I've, I dunno, suffered some type of mortal wound and I've been displaced to a paradise that's been tailored to my liking!"

"Wow. That was really morbid and specific

"I'm beginning to see Ghost Girl's point." Brin said. "Unless you're a nostalgia freak or something, this place is weird."

"It's not all bad. They've at least got a pool table." The older Ayla said, her arms draped over his shoulders.

"Yeah, but it's not 3D."

"So what?" She asked. She walked over to the pool table, and picked up a cue stick. She held in a seductive way, pressed up against her chest. "Wanna rack 'em up?"

"Well when you put it that way..." Brin said, smirking.

...

Ayla was sitting at the top of the stairs when she heard the guys come back in. She eagerly rushed downstairs to her brother and jumped on his back, shaking off some of the snow on his person.

"Oof!"

"So, did you guys get the tree?" She asked.

"Yep, and it's a beauty." The younger Garth said as they were joined by the two Imras.

"Oh, it's gorgeous." Ayla said.

"Told you we could handle it." The older Garth said.

The two Imras began expecting it, when they exchanged dual glances with one another

"Uh, guys, not to nitpick or anything, but, did you bring an axe like we asked?" The younger Imra asked.

"An axe? Why would we need that?" The younger Garth said.

"To avoid something like this." The older Imra replied.

She pointed to the fact that the back of the tree was burnt and lacking any fir or needles.

"It's fine. We'll just cover it up with decorations. No one will notice." The younger Garth said.

"..." Was all the young Imra said.

"Oh, come on, Imra! It's thirty below out there!" The older Garth said.

"..." Was all that his wife said. The two Garths sighed.

"Fine, you win. We'll go get another one." The older Garth said.

"What do we do with this one?" The young Imra asked.

KRAKOOM!

"Problem solved." The two Garths said at the same time. The tree was vaporized.

"Can I come with you guys?" Ayla asked.

"I don't know, it's too cold for someone your age." Her brother said.

"Please? Please?" She said before breathing in deep, and going "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"

"Alright! Alright!" They said. "Go get changed."

"Booyah!" Ayla happily cried, and she ran to her room to get changed, within a few seconds she was decked in winter gear when she saw Garth standing at the top of the stairs with Imra, also in her winter gear.

"What is she doing?" Ayla sternly asked.

"I decided to join you guys." Imra said.

"Apparently she has some problem with my taste in Christmas trees." Garth rolled his eyes. Imra laughed. Ayla fake laughed and then grabbed Garth's hand.

"No, that's okay, I have enough taste for the both of us." Ayla said.

Imra gently took Garth's right arm and wrapped it around her arm.

"Really, it's not problem Ayla."

"Really, Imra, you just go do whatever it is you were doing. WE'LL be fine." Ayla tugged at Garth's arm.

"Ow! Easy, Ayla." Garth told her. "I'm fine with Imra, coming."

"Well, I'm not. I mean, she obviously has better things to do." Ayla sternly said, and began pulling Garth towards the stairs.

"Ow! Ayla, slow down." Garth told her.

"Garth, maybe I shouldn't go." Imra said.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't." Ayla said.

"Ayla, that was rude!" Garth told his sister. She didn't let up on her cold stare at Imra.

"Sorry." She said, but Imra knew she wasn't sorry. "Come on, Garth." She said, trying to pull him down the stairs. "Let's-"

"Ayla, let go!"

He got out of her grip, surprisingly strong for a little girl but you know what they say about determination. Garth tripped on the rug.

"Gah!"

And before you know it was sent down the stairs.

THUD!

"Oh my God! Garth!"

He lay sprawled at the bottom of the stairs like a rag doll.

...

"You have GOT to be kidding me."

"They're actually making this easy for us."

"I dunno guys, I've heard stories about the black-haired girl."

"Seriously?"

"I heard she gouged out Silver Slasher's eye using her thumb."

"That is retarded."

"Can we get to the topic on hand? So, who dies first?"


End file.
